By Anuradha Punyani
In order to discover the ideal home for their own book, readers must have a good grasp of all of the many book genres. During the writing & reading process, the tropes and expectations of a book’s genre will impact its content and style, as well as fundamentals like word quantity. However, it’s also crucial for book promotion, establishing a target demographic, and those all-important Amazon categories. If you choose the wrong category, you could be saying goodbye to a good book and welcome negative reader feedback!
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Fantasy
This book genre is defined by aspects of magic or supernaturalism, and it is frequently based on mythology or folklore. These magical components are at the foreground of the plot in high fantasy, which is set in a totally imaginary world, like in Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician trilogy. However, magic is gently weaved into an otherwise recognizable, real-world context in low fantasy or magical realism. You may learn how to tell your Arcanepunk from your Flintlock and where your novel belongs by delving into fantasy’s different subgenres.
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Science Fiction
Though science fiction and fantasy are frequently regarded as two sides of the same (speculative fiction) coin, sci-fi is defined by its focus on true or realistic science. Because so much science fiction is set in the far future, it’s fertile ground for novels about time travel and space exploration. Your science fiction story, on the other hand, does not have to be based on “hard” science like physics or astronomy. Some works in this genre use “soft” disciplines like sociology and anthropology to forecast the human race’s future — more on that later!
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Dystopian
Dystopian novels, a popular subgenre of science fiction, provide a gloomy and terrifying image of the future. Authors of dystopias envision a bleak society, frequently in the aftermath of a calamity, where authoritarian governments, Black Mirror-esque technology, and environmental disasters exist. The lasting attraction of dystopian fiction stems from our burning desire to know where mankind is headed — and our perverse enjoyment of awful stories, as long as they aren’t happening to us.
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Adventure & Action
If you’re creating an adventure novel, odds are it’ll follow the Hero’s Journey pattern. Your protagonist has a major aim to attain, but they’ll have to put themselves through a lot of hardships first! You throw in stumbling blocks after stumbling blocks, placing your hero in risky situations, but they eventually triumph and return home transformed. The action and adventure genre complements a wide variety of other genres, therefore it may be found in everything from fantasy novels like The Hobbit to classic romantic novels like Jane Eyre.
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Suspense
This book genre, often known as detective fiction, is defined by a captivating plot that focuses on a mystery – but ideally, you’ve figured out the solution! Your book’s setting, characters, and tone will determine whether it’s a cozy mystery, a hardboiled mystery, or something in between. However, at the heart of every mystery lies a crime that the protagonist must solve. Check out Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, the grande dame of mystery literature, to get a sense of the smart trail of clues that is so important to this genre.
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Suspense and Thriller
If psychological terror is used to enhancing tension, a horror narrative can also be labeled a thriller. However, not every thriller is a horror story. So, what exactly are they? While many of the aspects in a thriller are similar to those in a mystery, the protagonist in a thriller is frequently trying to preserve their own life rather than to solve the crime. Thrillers are known for cliffhangers, deception, high emotional stakes, and lots of action, which keep the reader on the edge of their seat until the book’s conclusion. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, is a masterclass in the dark, cryptic thriller.
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Historical Fiction
Fictional stories set in a historical background are included in this book genre, which carefully balances imagination and facts. In most cases, the author creates his or her own characters and events, which are then embellished with historically correct facts from a given time period. Consider Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help, which is set in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. However, in some cases, like Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, the main story is based on real historical individuals and events.
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Romance
Because romance is so frequently employed as a subplot, determining whether or not you’re writing in this genre can be difficult. The most important thing to remember is that the love relationship must be the plot’s focal point. (A “happily ever after” conclusion and the warm fuzzies are also giveaways.) If your book has a love relationship at its core but is otherwise well-suited to another genre, it most likely belongs to one of romance’s many subgenres, such as young adult romance, paranormal romance, or historical romance.
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Literary Fiction
Books classified as literary fiction, like contemporary fiction, are difficult to categorize. The difference between literary fiction and current fiction is that literary fiction is believed to have significant creative worth. If your prose is supposed to provoke thought in the reader, if your story is character-driven and introspective, and if you offer personal or social commentary on a “serious” issue, you’re probably writing lit-fic. Literary fiction includes works by Virginia Woolf and Ali Smith, as well as other modern classics.
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Magical Realism
You may recall us discussing magical realism as part of the fantasy genre, however, because of its highbrow style and literary status, magical realism is frequently regarded as a genre unto itself. It has a real-world backdrop, a cast of ordinary characters (no vampires, fairies, or sorcerers), a fluid and non-linear narrative, and supernatural events that are left unexplained, such as a kid born with feathered wings or an egg hatching a ruby. This literary style has been employed by authors like Isabel Allende and Toni Morrison to address major societal issues such as colonialism, fascism, and slavery.
So there you have it: ten of the most popular book genres. Hopefully, this list will assist you in gaining access to the appropriate doors. If your work doesn’t fit cleanly into any of these categories, don’t be afraid to call it a hybrid or delve deeper into the subcategories that exist in the shadows of these many genres.